Monday Night Film Series: Chimes At Midnight

The crowning achievement of Orson Welles's later film career, Chimes at Midnight returns to the screen after being unavailable for decades. This brilliantly crafted Shakespeare adaptation was the culmination of Welles's lifelong obsession with the Bard's ultimate rapscallion, Sir John Falstaff, the loyal, often soused childhood friend of King Henry IV's wayward son, Prince Hal. Appearing in several plays as a comic supporting figure, Falstaff is here the main event: a robustly funny and ultimately tragic screen antihero, played by Welles with lumbering grace.